Interview: Steve Conte

Steve Conte has had an utterly remarkable career: the New York City-based guitarist has been a member of New York Dolls, and has played with a dizzying array of other artists (Michael Monroe, Billy Squier, and even Chuck Berry, just to name a few). He also has a thriving solo career – and, as he exclusively tells The Big Takeover, his next album is off to an amazing start thanks to an exciting songwriting collaboration. He’s also candid as he takes a look at his career overall, and reveals what it takes to be one of the most in-demand musicians in the business.

You always seem to have a lot going on, but what’s your latest news?

STEVE CONTE: I am writing songs for a new album right now, which is going to come out on Little Steven’s label, Wicked Cool Records. And I’m writing with my songwriting hero from the band XTC, Andy Partridge. It’s like, pinch me. It’s a dream come true.

How did that happen?

STEVE CONTE: In 2003, the guy who was working on my guitars in NYC, Dennis Fano told me he was building a guitar for Andy and I flipped! I asked him, would he please give my latest album to Andy (Bleed Together by The Contes – a band I had with my brother John). So Dennis gave Andy the CD and he really dug it, but nothing much came of that situation, except that now he knew my name and that I did good music. But a few years later, after I joined the New York Dolls, I had met the producer Steve Lillywhite, who has worked with U2, The Rolling Stones, everybody. And he worked on two of my favorite XTC records, Drums and Wires [1979] and Black Sea [1980]. We just kept running into each other, and then we started hanging out. Lovely guy. And we were chatting on Twitter and at the time, Andy Partridge was on Twitter. Somehow, we ended up in a three-way conversation on Twitter, me and Steve and Andy. And then Andy went, “You were in the New York Dolls? Oh my God, I wanted to be a New York Doll – I even sent a letter to [lead singer] David Johansen when I was a kid saying how much I loved the band.” So he was immediately impressed about that. Then I was playing a gig with Michael Monroe in Swindon, where XTC is from, this little town in England where they apparently get no respect for some reason. And he wrote, “I hear you’re playing in my shithole town. I’d like to buy you lunch.” So in Swindon, Andy Partridge picked me up in the parking lot of the arena. We had lunch, we hung out all day, we played guitars, we listened to music, we jammed. He showed me how to play certain XTC songs. I showed him riffs. We laughed at YouTube videos. It was an amazing afternoon. Then I went back to the arena. I played my show with Michael Monroe, opening for Alice Cooper. And then Alice Cooper invited me onstage to play “School’s Out” with him. So it was like, I’m hanging out with Andy Partridge in the morning, playing a gig in the early evening, and by late night, I’m onstage with Alice Cooper. So when that gig happened, this was one of the most amazing musical days of my life. Second only to playing with Chuck Berry, probably. I really connected with Andy at that time. So I wrote to him and said, “Andy, how would you like to write my next single?” And he wrote [back], “Well, Steve, I sort of swore off songwriting for other people a while ago. But it isn’t a no. Let me think about it.” So I gave him like a month and then I wrote back and said, “Any further thoughts about it?” And I sent him a track that I had been working on, just to show him what I can do at home. It sounded pretty damn good. And he wrote back, “I can’t do anything with that because it’s almost finished. But let’s set up a Zoom session.” So we had a two-hour Zoom and came up with four song ideas. And then I demoed them. Next time we talked, he goes, “You want to write more?” Andy Partridge is wanting to write more – of course I want to write more! So then we set up another Zoom and we came up with another four songs.

So what’s going to happen with those songs now?

STEVE CONTE: I just starting recording them. I cut 7 tracks last week with the drummer who played on XTC’s Skylarking, Prairie Prince from The Tubes, who [also] plays in Todd Rundgren’s band (Todd Rundgren produced Skylarking.) I had my brother John Conte on bass and it was quite an amazing power trio we had going. Prairie was a very easy person and drummer to connect with.

Will Andy play on any of them?

STEVE CONTE: I’m not sure if he will make a cameo; I haven’t asked him yet. First I want to get the tracks recorded, and when I get it up to a certain level, I’ll send him a rough mix and go, “Hey, Andy, you want to put some background vocals on this? Or add a guitar part?” Anything he wanted to do on any of the songs would be welcome.

So will this come out under your name?

STEVE CONTE: It’s going to be my record; every song on the album won’t be a co-write with Andy. I have a bunch of my own songs that fit with the Conte/Partridge songs. The last few records I’ve made started with a core group of songs and then I go through my archives and pick out other songs (or finish ideas) that compliment or go with the core songs. In this case those are the “Cartridge” songs as I call them. So it’s going to show another one of my multiple personalities; the Beatles, XTC, Brit, power-pop side.

Besides your solo work, you’ve also been a major go-to guitarist for many other artists. How did that come to be?

STEVE CONTE: I grew up playing rock and roll on my own by ear, teaching myself a lot. Then, luckily, I realized that I could go to college for free on a scholarship, so I went and I got a little more musically educated. I could already play rock and roll and write songs and sing just naturally from being part of a musical family, but getting that education allowed me to really kick ass in New York. When you get a call in New York City, you’d better deliver when you walk through the door, so I built my ear up really good so I could hear stuff and sing it or play it right back. That really came in handy with studio work and the different styles of music. But after all of that schooling, I’m still not a music “reader” so I don’t do those types of recording sessions, or Broadway. I’m a “feel” guy who knows how to come up with “parts” for songs and get different sounds.

Where in New Jersey did you grow up?

STEVE CONTE: In Matawan. Back when I was growing up in Jersey, it was either Bruce Springsteen or Bon Jovi, and I’m neither one of those, so I’ve got to go where people like me are. So I came to New York in 1986. My original goal was to get a record deal and start a band here. I had this blues band called The Hudson River Rats, and for like two years, 1988-89, we played every Wednesday night at Under Acme on Great Jones Street, a great soul food place. Word got out and people started coming down and sitting in with us: Cyndi Lauper, Carole King, Phoebe Snow, Willy DeVille, David Johansen. And all the studio musicians would come down, too. So I started meeting these guys and doing recording sessions, and fell in with those cats. I did a bunch of recording sessions for years with guys like that, and it expanded into different circles. I guess I was building a reputation. I was a rock and roll guy who also had some knowledge of harmony and theory, like from jazz, if that was needed. And I could also play R&B and soul and funk. So I played with a lot of diverse people, [such as] Billy Squier, Peter Wolf, Maceo Parker, and was musical director for Prince & The Revolution singer Jill Jones. And eventually, I put together my own band, Company Of Wolves, with my songwriting partner and singer Kyf Brewer, brother John and drummer Frankie LaRocka. We got signed to Mercury Records and released our debut album in 1990.

How did you then end up joining New York Dolls?

STEVE CONTE: In 2004, David Johansen called; he had gotten my number from a couple of other very well respected guitar players in town. They told him, “Don’t call anybody else, just call Conte – he’s got the right look, the right guitars, the right attitude, and he’s a talented guy.” So David and I got together and had lunch. At the end of the meeting, he gave me a couple of CDs and [music] charts and said, “So, do you want to do this or what?” He didn’t even hear me play, didn’t hear me sing. At one point he goes, “I know you went to Rutgers, I know you’re educated.” I guess he figured I was a guy who knew my stuff musically – and who wouldn’t be a drugged-out drama king. So that’s how that went, and we did our six-year, four-album run.

What was that like?

STEVE CONTE: It was the rarest of opportunities. How many ready-made New York rock and roll bands can you just step into? And I’m only getting the call because the original guitar player, Johnny Thunders, is no longer with us. I wasn’t a Johnny Thunders fan, and I wasn’t even a New York Dolls fan, really. I didn’t not like them, but I wasn’t into that kind of music, really. My record collection was The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, R&B, soul music, blues, some prog stuff, and jazz. I didn’t really have many punk or garage band records in my collection. I wanted to be a guitar player like Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page or Jeff Beck. I didn’t want to be like Johnny Thunders because really, he was primal. He was just a very animalistic, simple. Not something I aspired to, note wise. I didn’t even really listen to the records until David Johansen gave me the gig. [But then] I saw why people really loved the guy because he didn’t give a shit – he played almost the same solo on every song, but he played the same five notes like his life depended on it. Whereas you get guys who can play a lot of notes and it’s not emotional. He was very emotional, and he played like he lived. He lived dangerously, he played dangerously. So I thought, “How can I do this gig? I’m not a devotee of Johnny Thunders guitar school, so what do I have in common with him?” And really, we both love Keith Richards and Chuck Berry.

Speaking of Chuck Berry, you mentioned you played with him. What’s that story?

STEVE CONTE: Chuck Berry was some of the first records my brother and I had ever owned. Then a trumpet player my mom worked with on jazz gigs was the booker of entertainment at The Meadowlands, where Chuck was coming to play and needed a band. The promoter said, “I’ve got a band for you, Chuck.” So he called us – we had a blues band at the time, the Hudson River Rats. We all showed up knowing all the songs already in the proper keys and everything. But Chuck said to the promoter, “I don’t use no other guitar player.” And the promoter says, “Don’t worry, Steve’s really good, he can lay back.” And Chuck says to him, “I’ll give him one song. If he ain’t happening, I’m going to throw him off the stage.” So the promoter tells me this before we go on. You know, no pressure. So I lay way back. And I guess he respected that and heard what I was playing and that I was backing him up, I wasn’t doing anything fancy. Four songs in, we play a slow blues song, and Chuck points to me, gives me a solo. Not only am I not getting thrown off the stage, he’s giving me a solo! And as I play, he comes up to the mic and goes, “The man can play! Take another one!” And he gives me another solo. Then we play some more songs. Then he does another slow blues song, and gives me the solo again. I was like, “Man, this is too good to be true.” The first guitar solo I ever learned in my life was “Johnny B. Goode,” at thirteen. And then he starts “Johnny B. Goode,” and he pops his high E string right on the intro riff, and I go, “Uh-oh, what’s going to happen when he gets to the middle?” Because that solo is iconic and he’s only got one of the strings to play it. Here comes the part, he points to me – I got to play the first guitar solo I ever learned in my life with the man who wrote it, the legendary guy who invented guitar rock and roll. So needless to say, it was probably the greatest musical moment of my life.

You’ve been such a diverse performer – how did you develop that wide range in the first place?

STEVE CONTE: My mother is a jazz singer, but she’s semi-retired from performing now. She was very young when she had me. She would sing to me while I was in the womb. Then, of course, when I came out, she would sing to me. We had a great record collection in the house. She was listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday – that’s the kind of stuff that she sang. And my dad was a jazz freak. He had Miles Davis and Wes Montgomery and Cannonball Adderley records. They both loved Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. So I heard all that stuff growing up, constantly. And the classics, Beethoven and Brahms and all that. And Sergio Mendes & Brasil ‘66. It was the sixties, and my parents weren’t into pop music or rock or blues or R&B and rockabilly, anything that was going on with the kids at that time. So when The Beatles came out, they weren’t rushing out to buy the records, but they had a couple come over to our house, friends of theirs, for dinner. And they brought Revolver, which had just come out. I was about six years old, I guess. That record changed my life. Listening to it with headphones and looking at the album cover, I was sucked in by that record. Talk about a record that defies all genres. That’s when I knew what I wanted to do, and I started playing drums the next year because I wanted to be Ringo Starr. My brother John started playing guitar, and I picked up his guitar one day and started writing songs; I had no idea what I was doing. I just played on one string with no pick. I played with my fingernail. I was hearing melodies against these bass notes that I was playing, and I was like, “Hey, I can write songs – but I can’t be a singer and be stuck behind the drums.” So I started taking guitar lessons, and within a month, I stopped playing drums, and John switched to bass. And that’s how we ended up on guitar and bass.

How did you come to play professionally?

STEVE CONTE: My parents split up when I was about thirteen, maybe a little younger. My mom had four kids and no training to go into the workforce, so she went back to work singing in Holiday Inns and lounges. Eventually, she got a reputation up in the Jersey Shore area to where she became well respected by a lot of great jazz players. So I never gave it a second thought that you couldn’t make a living with music: I saw her do it. Then, when I became good enough around fifteen years old, she would hire me to play behind her. We would do wedding ceremonies. A few years later, she started hiring me to play her jazz gigs. So I learned the whole Billie Holiday songbook. Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra. I didn’t just want to be one of those three chord rock guys because I love so many different kinds of music. I became a good musician. That’s served me well to this day because I play punk rock in some bands, but I could also turn around and play with Steely Dan – if they’d give me the gig!

Is it ever nerve-racking, not knowing what you’re going to be doing next, or if you’ll be able to line something else up in a timely way?

STEVE CONTE: Yes, but what else am I going to do? I’m doing what I love. As soon as I land at JFK [airport] from a tour, I’m already thinking about, “Okay, how am I going to work this week?” I’m hustling all the time. I do session work. I teach guitar and songwriting. I do corporate gigs, like private parties and stuff like that (playing the classic rock and roll and soul music and music that I love.) I’ve played every kind of gig; dirty rock bars, theaters, arenas, stadiums, coffee houses and house concerts. I’ve played weddings. I’ve played bar mitzvahs. I played at anniversary and birthday parties. I just do a lot of different stuff. I wish sometimes that I didn’t have to think about, “What’s my next gig?” [But] I’ve been in this town for over thirty years…and I’ll stay here as long as the phone keeps ringing!

New Album:
Bronx Cheer (Wicked Cool Records)
Vinyl, CD, Signed, Downloads, Streaming
https://orcd.co/bronxcheer

Links:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHWEBIwkFkpKrq6IK_qdgyQ
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steveconte
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SteveConteNYC
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SteveConteNYC
Email List: http://stevecontenyc.com/site/mailing-list